Sugar

Honey Pound Cake is super dense and super sweet with the taste of honey.

Fresh berries are so in season right now and I thought I would share a pound cake recipe to serve with your fresh berries. I usually make a cream cheese pound cake. I ran across a recipe that uses honey and I thought that would be so delicious with fresh berries.

I am amazed how much the honey flavor comes through in this recipe. I recommend using a local home grown honey, it really will make a difference in this recipe. I used a honey made in Minnesota, AMES. I bought it at the Minneapolis Farmers Market. When ever I visit my daughter, Kiley we always make a stop at the farmers market, it is fabulous!

Here is a tidbit, from spring to fall most areas have a farmers market. I suggest visiting and supporting local farmers. You will get fresh produce and you are buying local. It’s also nice to talk to the farmers and ask for suggestions or find out more about their farm. I firmly believe in buying local, it keeps the local economy thriving.

In your mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and honey together for 2-3 minutes.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, making sure they are fully incorporated before adding another egg. Add the vanilla and mix to combine.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add 1/3 of the dry mixture and mix to incorporate, repeat this step 2 more times.

Add the batter to your prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool the cake for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. To remove, take a knife and go around the perimeter of the pan to loosen the cake, make sure to go on the outside of the parchment paper. Take hold of the 2 side of the parchment paper with 2 hands and life the cake up and set on a cutting board to finish cooling.

Notes

Serve with fresh berries and ice cream.
Adapted from White Lights on Wednesday.

Cinnamon Sugar Bites are a super quick and tasty breakfast item or snack made from refrigerator biscuits.

I tend to buy refrigerator biscuits and crescent rolls when they are on sale. As I was going through my fridge the other day I noticed I had a package of Jr. Biscuits that were due to expire. So, I put my thinking cap on and decided I could use a little something sweet to tide me over before dinner.

I love recipes that only include a few ingredients and ingredients that most people have on hand. I chose cinnamon, sugar and butter and came up with Cinnamon Sugar Bites.

You cut the biscuits into fourths, dip them in butter and then smother the pieces into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place the pieces into a baking dish, bake and in no time at all you have a delicious snack or breakfast item. It’s hard to eat just one, I ate almost half of them! 🙂

In a small shallow bowl, add the butter and microwave for about 30 seconds until fully melted.

Separate dough into 10 biscuits; cut each into quarters. Dip each quarter into melted margarine; roll in sugar-cinnamon mixture. Arrange in greased pan. Pour the left over butter over the top of the dish.

Italian Sugar Cookies are tender morsels of delicious sugar cookies with a light glaze and pretty sprinkles added to the top.

These cookies pretty much melt in your mouth, they are so soft and sweet. Trust me when I say you won’t be able to eat just one.

I usually make these Italian Sugar Cookies Christmas but I thought this would be a nice Easter treat as well. Adding the bright colored sprinkles reminds me of spring colors. These would be great to bake with kids or grand kids, they can help decorate the cookies with their favorite sprinkles.

I used a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop to form the cookies and I baked them for 8 and a half minutes in my oven. They had just started to turn golden on the bottom of the cookie. You might notice some slight cracking on the top of the cookie, this is normal.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

In your mixer cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.

In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Turn your mixer on low and add the flour mixture 1 cup at a time, turn the mixer up one speed and mix for a minute or two until well combined.

Using a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop form the cookies and place on the baking sheets or you can form the cookies by hand. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

For icing, in a small bowl, combine milk, butter, vanilla and powdered sugar until smooth. Dip the top of the cookie in the icing and sprinkle with colored sprinkles.